9. Flyers and norms:
cognitive stimuli
In chapter 8 it was shown that culture inluences people’s behavior. However, even if the
norms of responsible and irresponsible behavior are clearly evident, people are not necessarily
aware of them and do not necessarily behave accordingly. Norms can be present at the back
of our minds but still be forgotten at the crucial moment. It is therefore important that this
latent sense of values is activated. Research by Robert Cialdini and colleagues explains how
this works and its implications.
Cialdini and colleagues observed visitors to a local library in the American state of Arizona.
After each visitor stepped out of the car and entered the library, they placed a lyer under the
windscreen wiper on the driver’s side. The researchers then hid and waited until the visitor
returned to the car. What would he do with the lyer after reading it? Would he throw it into the
street, in violation of an evident norm, or would he behave well and take it with him in the car?
There was no trash can in sight.
The researchers had lyers with ive different texts.The lyer with the text ‘April Is Arizona’s Fine
Art’s Month. Please Visit Your Local Art Museum’ was thrown on the ground by 25 percent of
the visitors. This lyer created a control situation, because the text on it had nothing to do with
throwing the lyer away.The lyer with the text ‘April Is Arizona’s Voter Awareness Month. Please
Remember That Your Vote Counts’ was thrown away less often. This text indirectly triggered
the subjects’ environmental awareness, as evidenced by the fact that only 22 percent of the
lyers were thrown into the street. The lyer with the text ‘April Is Conserve Arizona’s Energy
Month. Please Turn Off Unnecessary Lights’ was more concretely related to awareness of the
environment, and led to only 17.5 percent of the visitors throwing their lyer on the ground.
The lyer with the text ‘April Is Preserve Arizona’s Natural Resources Month. Please Recycle’
was thrown into the street even less, at 15 percent. Flyers with the text ‘April Is Keep Arizona
Beautiful Month. Please Do Not Litter’ were thrown away the least at only 10 percent.
This simple experiment shows that the lyer with the non-normative message, which therefore
had no association with good or bad, was the least effective in inluencing normative behavior.
9. Flyers and norms: cognitive stimuli
